


We are Awesome

by jacquelee



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Community: gameofcards, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-07-15 23:46:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7243657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jacquelee/pseuds/jacquelee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An Orphan Black space AU in which the clone club lives together on a space ship. Mostly backstory and explanations but also a shared moment between Krystal and Mika. </p><p>Mention of attempted suicide.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We are Awesome

**Author's Note:**

> Written for an AU challenge at [gameofcards](http://gameofcards.livejournal.com).

"Are you listening?" Krystal was looking at Gemma and Kira with a raised eyebrow. She normally got so lost in her teachings about the perfect application of nail polish that she didn't even notice her student's disinterest, but this time, their whispers were getting louder and therefore harder to ignore, even for her. 

But now the children stopped whispering and looked at her. Gemma was the one to speak first, her voice excited.

"We were just talking about flying lessons. You know I never had any and Tony promised to give me some later. Isn't that great?" 

Both of them now looked at Krystal with wide smiles, clearly expecting this news to be as exciting to her as it was to them. Which it actually was. As much as Krystal cared about cosmetics and manicures over everything else, she did recognize the importance of knowing how to fly the ship and the excitement of learning it. 

She herself had gotten some flying lessons and had taken to it immediately, to the surprise of everyone, except for herself obviously, since she sure enjoyed adventure and what was flying a ship but a big adventure? But apparently the others still thought of her as air headed and shallow just because she actually cared about her appearance. 

But well, whatever. She didn't mind getting underestimated, it made a lot of things easier. It was what made her invaluable to this crew of misfits in the first place, her ability to get into every place without drawing suspicion. Being a well known name in the beauty circles, she was able to open doors that would definitely have stayed closed for the rest of the crew, the captain included, no matter how cunning S was. 

This was what she was trying to teach the children, but she suspected that she would have to concede that neither Gemma nor Kira were in any way interested in beauty. Ah, well, it had been worth a try. 

She smiled at them. 

"I guess then we should stop here. Maybe you can ask Tony if it would be okay to get those lessons right now." 

Both Gemma and Kira now smiled widely and jumped to their feet, rushing out of the common room that served for lessons and meals and general get togethers of the crew as quickly as they could. 

Krystal sighed and put her things together. 

"Can you show me?"

She hadn't seen the person coming up at the other door. As they stepped closer, Krystal saw that it was Mika, hiding behind her hair as always. 

"What? How to do perfect nails?" 

Mika gestured at Krystal's things. 

"Just everything. How to be pretty." 

Okay, no. As much as she loved beauty and everything to do with it, Krystal could spot someone in need of help far beyond perfect nails when she saw them. Mika was their latest addition to the crew and they still didn't know exactly what she had been through. They knew it had been awful, not just whatever had left her face scarred but also the loss of Nikki and her other friends and having to spend her entire life after that alone on a little barely space worthy freighter. 

When S had offered her to come with them, as she had done for all the other clones, it had taken more convincing than usual. Mika was used to fight alone and to be alone. As far as Krystal knew, initially it was Beth who had been able to get through to her, or rather, Mika had contacted Beth for some reasons none of them knew and told her about the clones and everything. 

But after shit had hit the fan with Neolution and Brightborn and Beth had tried to burn her bridges and end her life, Mika had gone into hiding once more. Only later Beth had been able to convince her that she hadn't meant what she said, that it was worth fighting. That with Sarah, who had saved her from her suicide attempt, and S who had experience in operations outside the law and was fiercely protective of all the sisters, they actually had a chance now. Even then, it still took Beth a while to get Mika to come back. 

But she was back and now happily spend most of her time in engineering, keeping the ship up and running. In a way, while she still got used to living among people now, it had been the easiest for her to adapt to a life in space since she had always lived that life, as opposed to Krystal and the others. 

Not that any of them hadn't jumped at the chance to escape Neolution, the Proletheans and their monitors, once they realized what was going on. They were all very happy for the life and the family they had built here. But for most of them it had been an adjustment, as they had mostly been planet based. 

Krystal herself had done her fair share of traveling as a sought after manicure, so it hadn't been as difficult for her as for say, Gracie, who had never before been anywhere other than her family's farm in a Prolethean colony. 

In the end, all of them had found their place on this ship and in this family, even Helena. Mika was still a little weary about interacting with the others though and Krystal wanted to do her best to make her feel welcome. 

She smiled at her. They would have to come back to why Mika suddenly wanted to be pretty but for now it was probably best to just stick to what she knew best. 

"I can give you a manicure if you want. There's nothing better than shiny nails." 

Mika smiled at her a little hesitatingly but sat down. Krystal started the manicure and as always chatted away about everything that came into her mind. That was why she was doing this job in the first place, to talk to people. Mika seemed to get more comfortable the more it became obvious that she wasn't required to respond much. Krystal was used to clients only responding with one word answers. 

"And then of course, Cosima complained because she had to stitch up Helena, like, if that was so hard, I mean she heals so quickly you could basically just leave her and she would be fine, right? But obviously S wouldn't have that. Anyways, you'd think by now Cosima would be used to being the doctor on board. I mean, I understand her, like, she is a scientist not a medic, but with both Sarah and Helena always getting injured we really do need a doctor on board, and Cosima is the only one who even knows what's what in a body. Like, I would never be able to stitch up a wound, oh my god, no, all that blood, I don't even want to imagine." 

"It's easier than you'd think." 

Now Krystal looked up and into Mika's face, on which the scars were clearly visible even despite the hair. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't-" 

"No, no, it's okay." 

For a few moments, there was an uneasy silence as Krystal didn't know what to say, something that didn't happen all that often to her. But she really hadn't meant to invoke bad memories in Mika by talking about these things. She didn't even know what exactly had happened to her, just that she had had the scars since her childhood. 

Mika was the one to talk again first. 

"Could you… I mean, your face, you're pretty. Could you do that for me too?" 

"What? No!" 

Mika was visibly taken aback by that reaction and Krystal tried to soften it a bit. Yeah, that's what she had thought. Now, how to handle this?

"I mean you're pretty as you are. The scars are just there, they're not bad or good. If I would hide them, you wouldn't be you anymore. You want to be you, don't you?" 

The hesitation was far too long. Krystal didn't know what to do. She contemplated getting Beth or Sarah. They were the ones who were good at this stuff. She really was not. But then Mika looked up, still hesitant but with a little more confidence in her eyes.

"Yes. I think so." 

"Good. Cause you're awesome, you know that right? Like, super awesome."

Now Mika smiled a little. 

"You really think so?" 

"Course I do. What do you think, I'm a liar? No ma'am, not me." 

The smile grew even broader. 

"I think I'm awesome too."

"See! There you have it. No need to change your face either. It's awesome as it is." 

For a moment, they just smiled at each other. Then Mika seemed to suddenly think of something. 

"You're awesome too." 

She blurted it out so abruptly that Krystal had to laugh. Then she nodded.

"Of course I am."


End file.
